眾生無邊誓願度
煩惱無盡誓願斷
法門無量誓願學
佛道無上誓願成

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Dharma Teachings

11 Feb 2019    Monday     2nd Teach Total 1248

The Dharma-Transmission Verse of the Twenty-Fourth Patriarch, the Venerable Simha (Ārya Siṃha)

Original text: 正说知见时,知见俱是心;当心即知见,知见即于今。

Explanation: When we express our views, knowledge, and opinions in speech, all these words and views flow out entirely from our own mind; they are all the wondrous functions manifested by our own mind, wholly being our own mind, neither different from nor identical with it. At the very moment when knowing and seeing take form, a portion of the seed-functions within our own mind becomes the discriminating activity of knowing and seeing—just as a piece of gold is fashioned into a ring, without losing the self-nature of the gold, while also possessing the function of a ring. So it is with our own mind: it transmutes into knowing and seeing without losing its own intrinsic nature. The ring is made from gold; knowing and seeing arise from our own mind. The ring in its entirety is gold, yet not all gold is the ring; knowing and seeing in their entirety are the self-nature of our own mind, yet our own mind does not entirely transmute into knowing and seeing.

——Master Sheng-Ru's Teachings
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Dharma-Transmission Verse of the Twenty-Third Patriarch, Bodhisattva Havelana

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